Real judgements, distilled
Court judgements broken down into the case type, how the decision played out, and the lesson worth remembering, with the full judgement available as a PDF.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1073
In circumstantial-evidence cases, forensic and DNA evidence must actually corroborate the alleged crime: a conviction cannot survive where the most crucial scientific evidence, on its own terms, points away from rather than toward the prosecution's theory.
Criminal Appeal · 2026 INSC 1074
A conviction based purely on circumstantial evidence requires every link in the chain, timeline, witness credibility, forensic matches, and motive, to be proven beyond reasonable doubt; gaps or suppressed evidence at any link entitle the accused to the benefit of the doubt, even in a serious case like a double murder.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8505
Courts will not quash a criminal case merely because the accused has a plausible alibi-type defence; unless that defence is conclusive and undisputed, the matter must be tested through the ordinary trial process.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8547
A private compromise between victim and accused cannot by itself secure quashing of a case involving serious, heinous allegations like attempted murder with a weapon: such matters must proceed to trial regardless of settlement.
First Appeal from Order · 2026:DHC:8563
Railway Claims Tribunals cannot reject a bona fide passenger's death claim based on speculative inferences when there is no direct evidence of an alternative cause of death; the compensation scheme under the Railways Act is to be interpreted generously in favour of victims' families.
Criminal Miscellaneous Case · 2026:DHC:8559
In matrimonial offences, courts can and do quash criminal proceedings once a genuine compromise is verified directly with the complainant, sparing both parties a prolonged and pointless trial.
Bail Application · 2026:DHC:8541
A co-accused's bail does not automatically extend to another accused where their actual roles in the offence differ materially; delay caused by one's own defence counsel cannot later be used as a ground for bail.
Execution Petition · 2026:DHC:8567
An arbitral award must be adequately stamped before a court can enforce it; courts give only a limited window to cure such defects, after which the award becomes legally unusable until the deficiency is fixed.
Arbitration Petition · 2026:DHC:8555
A genuine settlement reached through mediation renders a pending arbitration-related court petition moot, allowing parties to close out litigation quickly once they resolve their dispute privately.
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Legal Case Shots is a searchable database of Supreme Court of India judgments, each broken down into the case type, the court's key holding, and a practical lesson learnt, with the full judgment available as a PDF for citation or deeper reading.
INDSIL and Carborundum Universal Limited (CUMI) each set up captive hydroelectric power projects in Kerala under a 1990 state policy that let private industries generate their own electricity, subject to paying "royalty" for water used, including for benefits gained from "controlled release" of water from existing government reservoirs upstream. Both companies argued this royalty was actually an unconstitutional tax that the state lacked legislative competence to impose without proper statutory backing, and the High Court's Single Judge agreed and quashed the demands. The Kerala State Electricity Board appealed, and the High Court's Division Bench reversed, upholding the charges as valid contractual payments. INDSIL and CUMI then appealed to the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court held that the charges were "royalty" in the nature of a contractual payment for a specific benefit (the controlled release of water that aided power generation), not a compulsory tax exaction requiring separate legislative authority. Since the companies had voluntarily entered into agreements accepting these terms in exchange for being allowed to set up their projects, they could not later resile from paying what they had contractually agreed to pay. The Court also rejected the discrimination argument that captive power plants were being treated worse than independent power producers, since the two categories served different purposes and were not similarly situated. The appeals of both INDSIL and CUMI were dismissed, upholding the High Court Division Bench's decision, with no order as to costs.
A payment made under a voluntarily signed contract in exchange for a specific benefit is a fee/royalty, not a tax, and a party cannot invoke constitutional objections to escape obligations it freely agreed to in a contract from which it also took benefits.
